Road to East
Asia

A journal on contemporary East Asian
literature in
English

Welcome to the World Wide Web Home page of Road
to East
Asia

Faculty of Arts, York University

Vol.3, no. 2, 1999-2000

Overseas East Asians at Turn of New
Century

This issue reviews meritorious web sites and the latest print
publications about the Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean diasporas at the turn of the new millennium. Readers are
invited to assist in the compilation of a
Who's Who of notable (ethnic) East Asians in North America, Latin
America, the Caribbean, Europe, and
Australia. Please send us your nomination and the biographical
data of the person involved.

Have these exiles contributed significantly to the literary scenes
of their host countries, and to what extent have they been
influenced by their Western peers? Do the Western audience/authors
welcome these "transplanted" writers as "exotic elements" or as
members of the Republic of Letters, which is not demarcated by any
borders? Pulitzer prizewinner Gary Snyder, for one, argues that
"we are all dancing in and out of each other's dark and light."

While many CBCs do not speak their native dialect, many do. I am proud of the
fact that I speak Cantonese fluently. I also listen to Chinese music, watch
Chinese movies and had taken a Chinese history course.

Contemporary Canadian society and government have apparently out-grown the
naÔve cultural and race-centered biases of their forefathers towards
immigrants. However, Chinese immigration may be an anomalous case. Issues
continue to flare that indicate conspicuous differences between Canadian
perceptions of the Chinese and other ethnic immigrants. Historical perceptions
of culture and
economics were at the root of these opinions, as they were over 100 years
earlier. The fact is that
cross-cultural disparities still exist in Canada, despite such "modern" notions
as "multiculturalism"
and "racial equality."

Kevin Perkins has recently earned his masterís degree in East Asian History from
York
University.

This conference, held in Havana in December, 1999, was jointly sponsored by
Universidad de la Habana, University of California, Berkeley, Grupo Promotor del
Barrio Chino, and Casino Chung Wah, Havana.

After Spain had emancipated the slaves from Africa in the 19th century, some
200,000 Chinese laborers were imported to work in the Cuban plantations. "The
Chinese Cuban community remains visible, although most Chinese Cubans are now
blended into the Cuban population through intermarriages," according to the
sponsors of the Havana conference.

Among the participants were Ted Goossen (York University) and Frank F. Scherer
(York University). Apart from papers on overseas Chinese in the Caribbean and
Latin American countries, the conference included reports on other topics
pertaining to the Chinese diaspora worldwide, for example, "A Comparative Study
on Chinese Settlement Patterns between the U.S. and Australia"(Wei Li and Paul
Fernald, University of Connecticut) and "A Comparison between Overseas Chinese
and Overseas Koreans in America on Attitudes toward Homeland Reunification"
(George Totten, University of Southern California).

The author traces the causes of Japan's dwindling private investments in Peru
and other Latin American countries. This is a useful study of Japan's economic
activities in the region since 1945.

Peru is a special case, according to the author: "Its relation with Japan is
intertwined with the history of the Japanese immigration, thereby creating
strong emotional ties between the two nations," Kamiya writes. "With almost
120,000 Nikkei, Peru's population of Japanese descendants living abroad is
second only to Brazil, which has almost a million." He also notes that since the
1980s, "many Peruvians started to emigrate to Japan pursuing the Japanese dream.
This development could well have contributed to the victory of Alberto Fujimori
in 1990, a victory achieved along with great expectations of massive investments
from Japanese firms in Peru."

Set in contemporary China, Ha Jinís award-winning novel, Waiting, depicts
the struggles of
a doctor against the burden of tradition. Having fallen in love with a modern,
educated woman, the
physician tries to divorce his wife, who was chosen for him in his home village.
Ha Jin teaches
English at Emory University in Atlanta.

This essay, transmitted by BBC, February 19, 1998, censures the ridiculous
misrepresentations of the
Chinese people by the British. Among the silly puns cited by Lee are "the
overweight Mrs. Wong, the woman
with more chins than the Peking phone book," and the crash of the Hong Kong
stock exchange, which was a
"disease," just as the chicken flu was. Lee ends his essay with a touching poem
about Hong Kong by one of
his students, whose memories and sentiments are "quite similar" to those of the
British who "should know the
reality well," for they "were here for long enough."
Now a professor at the Universite Jean Moulin Lyon III in France, Lee wrote this
essay while he was
teaching at the University of Hong Kong. (Witty and worthwhile)

The film, which won the Audience Award for Best Dramatic Film at the Sundance
Film Festival, depicts the arranged marriages of Asian women to Japanese
plantation laborers in Hawaii between 1908 and 1924. During this period more
than 20,000 picture brides crossed the Pacific Ocean to join their husbands, who
made their selections based on the women's photographs. (Worthwhile)

NAATA is supported by world-famous actors and directors, including Joan Chen,
David Henry Hwang, Ang Lee, and Tamlyn Tomita. "NAATA strives to bring quality
Asian American programming to public television," says Donald Young, NAATA's
director of broadcast programming. I Am Viet Hung and Picture
Bride are two of the productions in which the association has been involved.
(Interesting and very informative)

The author calms fears that overseas Chinese entrepreneurs may
pose a challenge to Western investors, for stringent regulations
in the West have frustrated reliance on guanxi (personal
connections). (Interesting)